Jack Doyle is a racetrack publicist turned thoroughbred jockey's agent. His client is a seventeen year-old wisp of a girl from Ireland, Mickey Sheehan. She arrives at Chicago's Heartland Downs with her sister to pursue her dream of racing in the United States.

Things proceed as one would expect until ... someone starts doping horses, strictly forbidden by the racing rules as this would affect racing results.

John McEvoy, author of Photo Finish, is a racing expert and speaks knowledgably about the sport. He is able to take his readers from their easy chairs to a racetrack and engender the excitement and controlled chaos surrounding the sport of horse racing.

The characters in this well-written book come alive the first time they are introduced. I love Moe Kellman, furrier-to-the-Mob. And the idea of a horse communicator rings true, somehow. I enjoyed going aboard Mob capo Fifi Bonadio's plush yacht. Jack Doyle seems to know a number of not quite on-the-straight-and-narrow men, but is out of his element with them.

Photo Finish is McEvoy's fourth in the Jack Doyle series. I'm already looking forward to the next one.

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